MEMPHIS - Republican gubernatorial candidate Zach Wamp says he does not support secession from the union after website news articles said he suggested Tennessee and other states may have to consider seceding.
Speaking in Memphis, U.S. Rep. Wamp said he doesn't know how the writer of the article posted on NationalJournal.com was able to "extrapolate" from an interview that Rep. Wamp suggested secession could be considered in response to federal mandates like the Obama administration's health care law.
Wamp, who criticizes the health care law, says "no one wants even talk of secession."
The article quotes Wamp as saying "I hope that the American people will go to the ballot box in 2010 and 2012 so that states are not forced to consider separation from this government."
The Chattanooga congressman, who is running for the Republican nomination for governor, was also quoted by Hotline OnCall.
He praised Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who first broached the idea of secession in April 2009, for leading the opposition against health care reform and said he hopes voters "will send people to Washington that will, in 2010 and 2012, strictly adhere" to the U.S. Constitution's proscribed roles for the federal government.
"Patriots like Rick Perry have talked about these issues because the federal government is putting us in an untenable position at the state level," the congressman was quoted saying.
Rep. Wamp faces Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam and Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, R-Blountville, in the GOP primary.
Lt. Gov. Ramsey, in an e-mail to Hotline OnCall, wrote, "Rep. Wamp's trademark over-the-top temperament and overheated, sometimes crazy rhetoric, along with his 16 year Washington record of supporting hundreds of billions in deficit spending, like the Wall Street bailout, and hundreds of outrageous earmarks, like the notorious bridge to nowhere, is why Tennessee Republicans prefer my sincere, but seasoned and experienced conservative approach to leading our state."
During a Labor Day event last year, Rep. Wamp said states "are going to need to declare their sovereignty, stick together with other governors to protect freedom in our states and be willing to meet the federal government at the state line whether it's environmental regulations, the speed limit, gun laws, whatever the federal government's doing that's onerous."
But in response to a Times Free Press query at the time, he said he was not talking about secession.